March 2018

Buying a Home in British Columbia

Buying a home is the largest investment most of us ever become involved in. Yet people sometimes take less time over it than they do when buying a new car. That’s because it’s unfamiliar territory to many of us. We don’t know what questions to ask. We may take things for granted, rely on others when we shouldn’t, and sometimes we later wish we had known more about the process involved.

It is important for you to understand the the process that is normally involved in the purchase of a home, to recognize the significance of the documents you will encounter, and to understand the role of other people who may be involved in the transaction. Buying a home is a major event. This information will help you better

Being a first-time home buyer without guidance from qualified professionals is like using the internet to diagnose a serious illness -- it’s not going to end well. That’s the advice Toronto real estate agent and industry expert Karyn Filiatrault gives to millennials looking to enter the housing market.

She joined CTV’s Your Morning on Tuesday to warn against some of the biggest mistakes she sees real estate rookies make, even when they are getting help from the pros.

Not getting pre-approved by an experienced mortgage broker

Online calculators can help buyers get a rough idea of how much housing debt they can handle, but Filiatrault recommends using a mortgage broker to find the rate and terms that are best for you.

Fear of rising interest rates is causing more Canadians to opt for fixed-rate mortgages over variable-rate alternatives that could save them thousands of dollars in payments, according to a leading expert.

Justin Thouin, CEO and co-founder of LowestRates.ca, is calling for consumers to base their mortgage decisions on 30 years of downward trending rates, rather than locking in on a guess about what the Bank of Canada will do during the life of a mortgage.

“Canadians have become more concerned about not being able to pay their mortgage. They want to lock their mortgage rate in so they know the amount they have to pay in interest,” he told CTVNews.ca. “It’s a fear-based response.”

British Columbia's NDP government will introduce tax measures designed to push down the price of housing by targeting vacant homes owned by out-of-province investors.

Finance Minister Carole James said she hopes this and other changes will cool real estate costs, but would not predict how much, or what will happen if they take a bigger bite out of housing values than intended.

"We are treading on new ground," she told reporters on Tuesday as she unveiled her first full budget.

"We will be doing the analysis as we implement them."

The $54-billion balanced budget also promises historic investments in child care to create new spaces and train more caregivers, while giving tens of thousands of families access to two new programs to subsidize

Now that the kids are grown and moved away, do you really need all that square footage in your home?

While it’s nice to have a little extra space for entertaining guests, a house that’s too big just becomes a hassle to maintain. And if you’re like most people, you probably don’t want to spend your retired years racing to keep up with chores.

That’s one of the reasons downsizing in retirement is so popular with the Baby Boomer generation. Nearly 40 percent of adults aged 50 to 69 plan to move in retirement, and of those, 54 percent of those plan to downsize into a house that’s either smaller or cheaper than their current home, or both.

Despite the appeal of a more manageable home, many seniors are scared away from moving because of the effort it

Stuck between a rock and your mom’s basement

Multiple generations living under one roof isn't a new concept, but it is on the rise in North America, especially with millennials. This housing shift comes as a result of many factors, including work challenges and the rising cost of rent in most parts of the country. In fact, millennials are starting their adult lives after the worst financial crisis since the 1930s. This change has been the subject of much speculation and comparison to earlier generations, so personal finance expert Rubina Ahmed-Haq stopped by to help shine some light on why Generation Y is staying put for now.

Gen Y – commonly referred to as millennials – are people born approximately between the 1980s and the mid-1990s. Increasingly

Latest government numbers show B.C. HOME Partnership program was missing targets

For the current provincial government, it was never HOME sweet HOME.

The province announced today that it will cancel HOME — formally the B.C. Home Owner Mortgage and Equity Partnership program — a government loan program that aimed to help first-time home buyers get into the B.C. housing market. HOME provides loans of up to $37,500 or five per cent of the home's purchase price (up to a maximum of $750,000) to first-time home buyers for a down payment. .

In announcing the cancellation, the government said the program had failed to meet expectations. When it was announced in late 2016, it was expected that 42,000 British Columbians would use the program over three